Raymarine st6002 autopilot issues

C

CDory23

New member
My boat was purchased with a working Raymarine st6002 autopliot system. Hydraulic lines are labeled sea sytem with a type II pump and a Hynautic bar across the back transom. Yesterday out on the water it kept failing and defaulting back to standby. I took a closer look today and the pump is really struggling to move the motors (twin yami 40's) It will move them a few inches and then really struggle and stop.

If anybody has any experience on this and what steps I should take to problem solve this issue it would be appreciated. I don't think any maintenance has been done on this system from the original install in 2003.
 
First thing I would do is check all the electrical connections between the head unit and the pump.... I would coat all the terminals with Dielectric grease and make sure all the connections are solid..

Then I would disconnect it from the Yamaha's to see if the resistance is in the linkage or one of the motors.... then I would verify that there is no air in the system and that the hoses are not kinked ..... the original hoses that came with my Sea Star system were cheap and pretty flimsy (I think) so I had custom lines made up...much nicer and not terribly expensive...

Joel
 
If the above doesn't give you the diagnosis, then look at the pump. They can fail--and be rebuilt. I sure would try Joel's suggestion of cleaning all terminals--and measuring the voltage at the pump, to be sure that the motor is getting the 12.6 plus volts.
 
Ok, So i took the boat out again and used autopilot and for the most part it worked fine. With strong winds while trolling it just couldn't do the job, but I assume this is a common issue.

My diagnosis of the problem: I installed an add a battery kit from blue sea systems with the ACR. When the boat is in storage I take the fuse out of the ground cable so the charger can recognize each battery seperately and charge them independently. The time when the autoplilot wasn't working I forgot to put the fuse back in which means the house battery was getting no charge from the engine. I also had trouble starting the Wallas this day which makes sense because of the low charge on the house battery.

I will continue to monitor issue and hope this solves it.
 
This issue with the autopilot started again a while back, but I've been working on so many other things I haven't gotten to it and just don't use it.

I'm glad I started looking into it today though because I realized a rookie mistake. My Power steering fluid was not full, in fact I could not even see a liquid level at the helm. The pump must be airbound and struggling because of it. Luckily my regular steering has still been working fine, but perhaps the steering I"m used to isn't as good as it should be.

My plan of attack on this is to completely fill and bleed the system and then try to find where the leak is.

Is there any different method of bleeding the system because the pump for the autopilot is involved or do I just bleed it as normal?

Also On the cylinder I see two allen bolts which I assume are the bleed holes. This looks messy and also I'm not sure how it wouldn't allow for air to get back in when your finished bleeding and secure them back. On others systems I've seen plugs where you loosen and connect plastic hoses to for bleeding into a container similar to doing your brakes.

Last question is I"m trying to find out what the part underneath the cylinder is. It almost looks as another cylinder and has one wire connected to it. Is this for the autopliot so it can detect the position of the shaft to adjust for steering?

I have pics in my album to help with this labeled Seastar1 through Seastar 3.

Thanks.
 
Here are the photos:

Seastar 1
seastar1.sized.jpg



Seastar 2
seastar2.sized.jpg



Seastar 3
seastar3.sized.jpg


You're Welcome.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
Ive done a bit more research and figured I would share the answers to the questions I posted above. I found the manual to the K-13 steering cylinder I have and found the following.

Those hex nut bleeder screws are simply loosened to purge the air out of the system. I don't like that setup so I ordered the bleeder fittings I linked above to do a proper bleed and also to keep the process less messy.

For purging the system of air with an autopilot pump you simply turn the autopilot on and and navigate it starboard or port depending on which side you are purging and let it run for 1-2 minutes. Repeat that process several times.
 
"For purging the system of air with an autopilot pump you simply turn the autopilot on and and navigate it starboard or port depending on which side you are purging and let it run for 1-2 minutes. Repeat that process several times."

Thanks for that info, I didn't know it purged seperatly.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
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